Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze  God Of Peace
by Varrukh
Summary: After the Fourth Shinobi War Naruto and Sakura had disappeared, after the defeat of Madara both of them were nowhere to be found. Now six years after the end of the Fourth Shinobi War just what has happened to Naruto and Sakura and just who are they with?
1. Chapter 1 Beginning

Three figures walked through the woodland in silence. Their objective was simple, eliminate a group of bandits who were trying to disrupt the peace and then report back. The bandits had become quite the pest for the villages that they pillaged. Requests had been sent out in every direction for some form of assistance and this trio had heard the call and were answering in kind.

"Bandits, you would have thought by now they would stop causing so much trouble when they know people like us will show up to stop them" one of the three figures spoke up, noticeably feminine. Her comrades turned their attention from the road ahead to look at her, acknowledging her statement before turning back to the road ahead.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures though don't they?" one of the figures supplied for her as they continued on. This voice was a male one and was one that sounded like the reply had been thought through over a long period of time, where in fact it was mere seconds.

"They shouldn't be doing what they are doing though, pillaging, raping, destroying. It is all disgusting and should be given no mercy when it is dealt with, these men who think that the best thing to do to survive is through harming others are scum" the third of the group supplied after the first male voice. His was much more rugged and simply sounded like he had experienced far too much for himself to cope with it all.

"By all means I do not think that it is a reasonable excuse" the first male voice said to the second without any hint of fear in his voice as the three of them continued on down the dirt track towards their intended destination. " I only said that there are some people in this world who believe that in order to survive you must do whatever you can" the first man said as he looked between the woman and the other man as he said his explanation.

"I guess you are right, some people just think that they must take care of themselves before they put any thought about others" the woman said this time as she looked to the sky. Seeing that the sun was slowly beginning to dip down to the west and was barely just above the treeline above them she signalled her two accomplices to look at her. "The sun is setting meaning that it shall be dark soon, we can either pick up our pace and make it to the next village as soon as possible or make camp, it's your call sir" the woman said as she addressed the first man who looked up to the sky and then back to the road ahead of them.

"I think that we could make it to the next village before the darkness sets in and anyway I think all three of us are capable of taking on the creatures of this wilderness" the man answered her as he spared the other male in their trio a glance only to see that he had continued on down the road when they had stopped.

"If we're gonna continue on we might as well make headway now don't you think?" the man asked them as he leaned his head back far enough to see them out of the corner of his right eye. With them both looking into the second man's eyes he closed it as he smiled to the two. "Come on, we want to get this done quickly and go home don't we?" the man asked as he focused his attention back on the road again and began walking.

The first man and woman stood in their position not moving for long enough as they simply looked at each other and then back to the man who was slowly making his way away from them.

"He has hardly changed all that much has he?" the man asked the woman as a smile spread across his face, something that he had been able to do much more frequently due to his company. The woman that he looked to however felt her face fall at what he had said as much as she wanted to agree she couldn't.

"I wish could agree with you but we both know that he has changed, and we know why too" the woman said as she looked to the retreating figure of the man as he made his way down the pathway to their destination. The past had not been kind to him and for him to act quite like he did was astounding.

"Exactly, it is part of the reason why we are in this situation anyway. We work for peace so that things like that can never happen again, it hurt him far too much to experience that" the man answered as he too looked at the figure that was slowly getting out of eyesight of the two. "Come on we better hurry up or he will leave us behind" the man said to his partner as he held out his hand, the woman grasped it and the two made a dash in order to make it to their comrade before he left them behind.

Appearing right at the side of the second man they both slowed down to his pace and walked alongside him. The second man's eyes wandered down and found the intertwined hands and smiled as he looked to his comrades side-on.

"At the hand holding stage already? And still you two haven't admitted you are dating yet?" the man asked as he raised an eyebrow at the two who blushed at such an insinuation, quickly letting go of each other's hands. "Honestly you guys are pathetic, if you two are dating at least say so instead of all this keeping it under wraps stuff" the second man joked as he laughed at his own joke causing both of the other two to become even more embarrassed. "Let it out surely you can tell me?" the man joked again as he held his hand to his heart and made a face that made him seem almost angelic.

"Shut up you idiot" the woman said as she walked a bit faster to get in front of him in order to hide the blush that had adorned her cheeks after what the man had said. He was not stupid and after being told to shut up he done so and gave her a reprieve.

"You know you shouldn't wind her up, she'll just get to a point where she will hit you, you know that" the first man said to the second as they walked side-by-side while the women walked in front of them. The second man smiled after he had been told that, truth be told he did know that, he just enjoyed winding her up a little.

"Yeah I know, it's all playful banter anyway you know? We both know there is no ill feeling towards it and so does she, it's just a little bit of fun I'm allowed every once in a while" the second man answered back with a mischievous smile towards the first man. The first man could only chuckle lightly while shaking his head at the way his comrade worked, honestly one of these days she was going to hit him until he stopped moving.

"Look ahead, the village is coming into view, should we continue into the village or scope out the surrounding area?" the second man asked the first as he rolled his head around d looking at the village and its surrounding environment. The first man looked around too as he took in all of the different factors of the area.

"We will move ahead into the village and move from there" the first man confirmed as he moved forward down the path. His comrade caught up with him slightly later and resumed his place walking at his side, still walking behind the woman who was now swaying slightly as she walked as if she was at peace despite all the things going wrong in the world.

"How do you think she does it?" the second man asked his comrade who was only able to look at him questioningly, the second man continued on " I mean she looks so at peace, like a child who is ignorant of all the problems in the world" the man finished as he turned his attention back to the woman who had stopped just at the gateway to the village to wait for them.

"She has very little left that she cares about, we are both the only things she has any real connection to, so when she is with us she feels more at peace, you should have seen her when it was just us two on a mission together" the first man finished but missed the small perverted grin that had spread across his comrades face.

"Oh yeah I bet you guys hated the being alone together time" the second man joked as he could literally see the redness consume his comrades face at such an insinuation. He grabbed his high collar and stretched it slightly while clearing his throat.

"Well yes I won't deny we spent some very nice 'us' time but other than those times she was not quite as calm as you see her now" the first man answered trying to hide away the blush that had completely taken over his face. His comrade simply laughed at him which did cause him to smile slightly too, it was hard not to.

"Fair enough I guess, I suppose she was lucky that this once the three of us were needed for this particular mission" the second man said as they got ever closer to their female comrade who was waiting for them at the gateway, as they approached she smiled to them before reaching around her back and bringing out a straw hat.

"I guess we had better hide our identities for now huh?" she asked as she placed it on her head and turned around into the village. The two men followed suit by bringing out their own straw hats and placing them on their heads. And with that the trio walked into the village, their black cloaks billowing in the wind, making the red cloud patterns upon the cloak almost appear real.

* * *

><p>Kakashi was standing at the front gates of Konoha, for once he was ready before his entire team was. He could be early if he wanted to and in the case of missions he did prefer to be punctual. At this particular moment and time he was waiting on his team to hurry the hell up! Honestly they complained that he took too long and yet they were taking their sweet time getting here just now.<p>

So here he stood waiting for team seven to get there so that they could go out on their next mission. He was lucky however that he did not have to wait too long as the three bobbing heads of his team signified that they were finally on their way. As they finally reached him a feminine voice spoke up for the three of them.

"Sorry we're late Sensei, Kenichi baka wanted to get something to eat before we got here and made us wait on him" the feminine voice supplied for the three of them. The little girl had long black hair that was tucked behind both of her ears; her eyes were a lovely silver colour that signified her as a Hyuga. She wore a light blue overcoat over a white t-shirt and blue trousers along with the usual sandals.

"Haruna, you're no fair, why did you sell me out like that?" cried the aforementioned Kenichi as he stared at his female teammate, completely crestfallen. The boy had short white hair and black eyes, quite the contrast on him. He wore a jumpsuit almost completely comprised of the colour green, not to the extent of Rock Lee though, this was a two part set of clothes. He also wore a black vest which looked much like the chunin version but for obvious reasons was not.

"For no other reason than that it is in fact your fault that we are late maybe?" came the voice of the third member within the team, Kakashi had wondered when the third member of the group would have her say in the matter, she always had something to say. She had flowing blonde hair and a pair of blazing blue eyes. Her attire consisted of white pants and a white shirt with black sleeves that extended down to her fingers where the sleeve created a glove effect over her hands, only her fingers showed on her arms.

"No fair Asura, I was just hungry was all" Kenichi said to the other girl as he looked directly at her, Haruna took this opportunity to make sure that he understood that he was not going to win this fight. By doing something that Kakashi had become accustomed to in the last few months. She hit him on the back of his head… hard.

"That's not a good enough excuse idiot!" she scolded her teammate as Kakashi sweat dropped at the antics of his new Genin team, yes Kakashi had yet another team of Genin on his hands now and they were finally on their way out on a C-ranked mission, away from the mediocre D-ranked missions that had been driving the trio crazy.

"Right, right, please don't hit Kenichi again Haruna it will really do no good, trust me I know" Kakashi told the little Hyuga as he recalled fond memories long gone now. "Anyway as you know this is our first C-ranked mission, we are tasked with ridding a village that is infested with bandits, now I must say that if you are engaged with any of them you are to either run or engage with the intent to kill" Kakashi said to them watching as their expressions all changed to surprise at the order to kill if necessary. "I shall be with you all most of the time so do not worry too much, I won't ever abandon my team" Kakashi finished with an eye smile.

"Kakashi-sensei, isn't asking us Genin to kill people too far I mean, surely it can't be that easy to kill someone" Kenichi supplied for his team which Kakashi noticed was quiet as both girls were looking at the ground unsure of themselves.

"Unfortunately I cannot just say to you that the life of a ninja is easy, you will have to kill in order to survive in the ninja world. It is by no means easy to do, after my first kill I was not able to look at myself in a mirror for a long time. The thought that I had killed a possible father, brother, husband, son or worse had me hating myself for a long time. But eventually I came to the realisation that I was protecting my village and its people and its future, killing does not get easier as you grow up but you come to understand it as a necessary evil sometimes" Kakashi explained to his Genin who seemed to look much better after Kakashi had said this to them all. Kenichi seemed much more comfortable although Haruna and Asura did not look entirely convinced yet.

"Can't we just beat them and ask them not to do what they are doing? Killing just seems far too extreme" Asura asked as she looked up to her sensei who could see the hopeful stare she gave him at her question. Unfortunately he had to sigh at what she had said.

"If only it was that easy Asura maybe there would be less death in the world. There are just some people out there who you cannot reason with, who believe in what they are doing far too much to bother trying to stop. There are few battles that I have been in that have ended without a death, it is just the life of a ninja, death is always just around the corner" Kakashi finished, however he could see the unconvinced look on her face and at that rested his hand on her shoulder causing her to look up to him.

"I once knew a great ninja who believed one day we would all be able to understand each other's hearts and that one day would be when peace would be attained throughout the land. Hopefully you just might live to see that day come, but until then we will just have to get used to the way things are just now OK?" Kakashi finished as Asura looked up to him and nodded her head in confirmation. Kakashi knew that chances were she was still unsure about killing anyone but knew also if pushed far enough and her own life or her team's in jeopardy would cause her to kill, it was just human nature to defend that which they cared about.

"Right are we all prepared then? Has anyone forgotten anything?" Kakashi asked his team and was happy to see that his entire team had their packs and were ready to move out. "Good, now we should reach the village within the day so keep up and we should be done and dusted with this mission in short order" Kakashi said to his team, receiving a chorus of "Yes sensei" he nodded his head and the three of them leapt up onto the nearest tree and began leaping from tree to tree.

As they leapt through the foliage Kakashi only hoped that this first C-ranked mission for his Genin would not go anything like the last time, although it had been a great success and the mission had in fact been complete it was on a completely different level from what should have been expected of a Genin team.

He would just have to hope that things went very well for his team. That meant they went in got rid of the bandits that were terrorizing the town and then leave, simply. He knew for a fact though that it was never that simply and as such braced himself for what they were going to be facing in the near future. His team were alarmingly quiet which he took as the three of them coming to terms with the severity of their mission.

Asking children was never one of the things that Kages wanted to do, or at least reasonable Kages anyway, but for the safety of the village they would have to start off young so that they would come more accustomed to it and be more capable of doing it in the future. As such Kakashi felt that if he were to even try and comfort his team he would only make them feel worse. So he left them to their own coping mechanisms.

* * *

><p>The three comrades were sitting in the room that they had rented out for the day in order to come up with a strategy in order to take out the bandits that surrounded the village. They were supposedly camped out in a cave system that was slightly to the north of the village, so it only made sense that they search there and find the leader of the bandits. After finding him it would simply be a case of eliminating him and any of the bandits who refused to leave and never come back to threaten any village again.<p>

Harsh though it may be they were only interested in making the village safe again, after all they only wanted peace, as did their leader. For him to send all three of them meant that this was definitely and important mission and meant that the numbers of bandits must number in the highest of levels.

"When should we do this then?" asked the female of the group to the leader of their small team, said man leaned back in his chair slightly and lifted his hat from his head to look at them both.

"I think it would be wise to attack tonight, that way their visibility is reduced and our own sharper senses will help us to beat the large majority of them, attacking a cave system at night will be difficult but they will be less used to the darkness so we have a slight advantage" the leader explained as the other two within the room look to each other they both shrugged their shoulders and looked back to the leader.

"Well you're the boss, if that's what you want then that's what we do, simple as that" The other man said as the woman nodded her head in the affirmative. The leader smiled at his teammates warmly.

"Good we set out before night fall and we shall rid this village of these bandits that infest it" the leader said as his two teammates nodded again in the affirmative.

* * *

><p><em>Well here is the first chapter of my new Fic. I hope that you like it as I thought it would be a good idea and if you guys like this chapter enough I will have the confidence to continue and explore this idea even further because it is one I find particularly interesting. Well anyway if you would be so kind as to read and review this that would be much appreciated. Anyway until my next story is updated byebye - Varrukh<em>


	2. Chapter 2 Team Seven Reunited

Kakashi was very happy with his team; they had made record time in making it to the village and were at that precise moment and time. Haruna and Asura were both lying on the double bed resting as they allowed their tired muscles the time they needed to resuscitate and prepare for the night ahead. Sitting on the floor was Kenichi, he had offered the bed up to the two girls out of his chivalrous ways and had taken the floor as his resting spot something Kakashi could not help but smile at.

The two girls might have acted as if Kenichi was nothing but a nuisance but in all honestly Kakashi knew for a fact that they both cared about him greatly and he felt just like that to both of them, they were as brothers and sister. In all senses Kakashi was proud of his newest Genin team, they were not the greatest of ninja that had left the academy but neither were they the worst. The very fact that they were his team showed that they could complete his test and thus were capable of becoming his team, much like the old team seven.

As he thought about his last team he thought with a painful current in his mind. They had started off so well, things had been rocky of course but by the time of the Chunin exams the three of them had reached an acceptable level of competence and teamwork to function as a good unit. After the actions that ultimately turned Sasuke against the leaf and his team the rest of the team realised that to retrieve Sasuke they needed to be stronger. And after three years both Naruto and Sakura were indeed stronger and ready to bring back Sasuke.

After so many failed attempts however and Naruto's final confrontation with Sasuke before the start of the Fourth Shinobi War he had surmised that neither he or Sasuke would walk away if they fought in the future. With that it seemed like Team Seven was destined to never reform as two of its members would die if ever they were to finally meet on the battle field.

And they did meet on the battlefield as fate had decided and they fought their titanic battle with the last of the Uchiha fighting against the last Uzumaki and Namikaze. Their battle had went down in legend and took place in the exact same place where they had fought before, in the Valley of the End.

Kakashi let loose a heavy sigh that he had been holding in ever since he went over his memories of his previous team. That sent of warning bells in the heads of his three students as they turned their heads to look at their sensei. In the short time they had known him they had slowly come to recognise the different tell-tale signs of whenever their sensei was troubled by something. They had been lucky enough to know exactly why he was usually late, they knew of his time spent at the memorial stone that had even more names on it he recognised.

"What is wrong Sensei?" Asura asked Kakashi as she sat up on the bed alongside Haruna who sat up too, Kenichi simply looked to Kakashi from his sitting position on the ground. Kakashi had decided when he took on this team he would hide nothing from them therefore gaining their undoubted trust.

"I was thinking about the last team that I used to teach" Kakashi answered her as all three of them became largely interested in what the one-eyed man had to say.

"What happened to them?" Asura continued her enquiry as her team silently waited for Kakashi to continue with his explanation that they had no doubt would stem to the Fourth Shinobi War. After all he had finally taken students again six years after the end of the Shinobi War, so he must have lost someone important to him.

"One of them died and I don't know where the other two are anymore, I lost all of them since becoming their sensei" Kakashi began as the guilt could literally be heard within his voice as it croaked in pain. His team were surprised by this but kept silent and allowed their sensei to continue on as they knew it was what he needed.

"I lost all of them and became a failure of a sensei, no sensei should lose all of their students and I done just that. One of my students died because of my inadequacy, which is something that took me a long time to get over" Kakashi continued as his head lowered slightly and his silver hair dropped over his face.

"The worst of all this happened at the height of the Shinobi War, which was when the last of my students became lost to me…" Kakashi said as he entered into an explanation of what had occurred at the height of the war.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Flashback<strong>_

The time had finally come the battle that was going to shake the entire ninja world was ready to kick off. The rain poured down in a complete and utter downpour that had both of the teens drenched. They had both dressed in their best battle coats that consisted of Naruto's flame cloak he wore during the Pain invasion and Sasuke wore an Akaksuki cloak that was only different due to the Uchiha crest attached to the back.

Naruto eyed his brother from the other side of the valley, they had stood in these same positions three years ago and here they were in the exact same positions again. Naruto stood atop the statue of Hashirama Senju whilst Sasuke stood atop the statue of Madara Uchiha.

"This gives you a bit of nostalgia does it not Sasuke?" Naruto asked his enemy as they stood staring at eachother with their arms crossed across their chests. Sasuke smirked before he began laughing wildly.

"Don't worry Naruto, you will lose here again like you did last time" Sasuke said to him through his laughter before he vanished from the air and reappeared halfway through the air towards Naruto. Although anticipating the move Naruto was too slow to create an effective block against the fist that ploughed its way into his face. Naruto flew into the air, and while his vision momentarily saw the grey sky the sight was suddenly robbed from him as Sasuke appeared before him again and delivered an axe kick to his stomach, sending him right back down onto the head of the First Hokage.

Naruto groaned as he got up again only to see Sasuke land on the ground opposite him and look at him with an unsatisfied look before he sent his right foot directly for Naruto who did not even bother to block and allowed the hit to get him true. The force of the kick sent Naruto off the statues head and falling towards the ground below. With an almighty crash and a billow of smoke it was apparent that Naruto had hit the ground and not even bothered to try and stop his descent, even for him that had to hurt.

Sasuke sighed as he took out his sword and charged his lightning affinity into it, creating a coating of lightning across the blade of his sword. Leaping down into the direction that Naruto had fallen Sasuke landed graceful onto the ground and looked over to the apparent area that Naruto had landed.

"Whatever happened to bringing me back to the village? Why won't you fight me now? Why will you not save yourself? Why fight for a village that clearly hates you? It's so stupid!" Sasuke shouted into the billowing plume of smoke that rose out of the crater where Naruto had landed.

"I fight for the village because it has people that I care for in it! I wanted to bring you back to the village so that I could protect you too!" Naruto called out from the crater in which he lay. "Your brother loved the village; don't you think that what you are doing is a great disrespect to him?" Naruto asked as the smoke finally cleared and showed Naruto standing still in the centre of the crater he had created.

Sasuke was livid at what Naruto had chosen to say and showed him that in kind, without even using the hand seals Sasuke brought his fingers around his mouth and blew out flames that grew to titanic proportions and eventually engulf Naruto entirely. "Never speak about my brother and that village! They sold him out when it suited them best! He is dead because of what they done!" Sasuke yelled to the flaming crater he created not stupid enough to believe that Naruto had been killed by that simple show of power.

Sure enough Naruto walked out of the flames largely unscathed although his clothes had looked better in the past. His tracksuit was ripped in some areas whilst his flaming coat floated in its tattered remnants on his back. Naruto stared at Sasuke with a look that seemed to tell Sasuke that he had finally given up.

"I guess there is no option then, we are both going to die here today" Naruto said before he was engulfed within a red cloak of chakra, only this time his appearance did not change in the slightest. All nine tails floated effortlessly behind him which showed Sasuke exactly how much he meant what he said, he was not going to draw their battle out, he was starting their battle at full power and going at it with everything at his disposal.

Sasuke responded in kind by bringing out his trump card too, closing his eyes he accumulated the amount of chakra required and a second later had opened his eyes to show Naruto his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. His Mangekyo had only changed in the way that the ellipses were now white instead of the old black.

"Lets go then" Sasuke said as a smirk reached his face at the thought of finally getting rid of the last bond he had found it almost impossible to break due to the knucklehead's persistence.

* * *

><p>A second passed where nothing happened and then just as suddenly both teens were in the middle of the air shooting and deflecting all manner of blows ranging from kicks to punches and even grabs. With one successful grab Sasuke had got ahold of Naruto's cloak and threw him across the valley into one of the surrounding walls. The crash kicked up much earth and dust and concealed Naruto from view. Sasuke ran to where he had thrown Naruto only for said teen to fly out of his crater in the wall and aim a fist right for Sasuke's face.<p>

Sasuke dropped to his knees mid-run and slid across the ground under Naruto's arm and after passing under it twisted his body around, his feet stopping his skid a few metres later.

"Almost dead-last, but not quite!" Sasuke taunted as he performed the necessary hand seals and formed the Chidori upon his hand. He charged forwards as did Naruto who had begun to create a Rasengan within his right hand and began to charge forwards. Once within range Sasuke stopped and waving his arm in an arc in front of him sent thousands of Chidori Senbon at Naruto. Not quite ready for the sudden onslaught of lightning needles flying towards him Naruto skidded to a halt and managed to jump just high enough to avoid the hail of needles.

What he did not expect even though he should have was Sasuke appearing right beside him in mid-air and delivering his hand covered with the energies of Chidori towards Naruto's gut. Without taking the demon cloak into account though Sasuke was unprepared when his hand passed through the liquid like material and diffuse the Chidori while at the same time burning his hand slightly. Wincing in evident pain Sasuke retracted his hand and pushed away from Naruto.

"Don't think I won't fight back Sasuke!" Naruto yelled at the raven haired teen as he crossed his fingers over into a familiar hand sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as four shadow clones appeared around him, all of them had the demon cloak on. The clones all began to create Rasengan within their hands and charged at Sasuke while the original Naruto stood and watched his clones try to beat Sasuke, taking in all of the information as Sasuke destroyed them.

Sasuke was merciless in the way that he destroyed the shadow clones. He forced Chidori through their hearts he decapitated one of them. He even went as far as to activate Amateresu on one of the clones because it had managed to hit him with a Rasengan right in his ribcage. With the four Naruto's taken care of Sasuke turned his attention back to Naruto with a snide smirk on his face.

"What? I thought you said you were going to fight back?" Sasuke said in a very condescending manner that had Naruto's expression change from a slightly pained one to one of seriousness.

"I am, I was just scoping out your abilities, one of the marvellous things about shadow clones…" Naruto said as he leapt from his standing position over to where Sasuke stood still. "Their experiences become mine, so the ways that you killed them will be harder to kill me with" Naruto finished as he sent his fist crashing forwards towards the face of the Uchiha. Even with his Sharingan activated Sasuke was unable to predict that move and as a result felt the impact of the punch full force and was sent right into the wall directly behind him. Even though he wanted to mentally complain about Naruto's strength he had long since given up on that, Naruto was just strong and Sasuke admitted it.

* * *

><p>Pulling himself out of the debris that he had created, Sasuke fell to his feet on the ground below and looked at the figure of Naruto standing across from him. The nine tails floated in the air effortlessly and did not seem to cause any problem for the man that had them attached to him. In fact whenever Naruto had those tails he was usually losing control of his mind, but just now he seemed to be completely in control.<p>

Naruto leapt from his standing position and closed in on Sasuke yet again with the intent to kill. For once in his life Sasuke saw the thing that Naruto was, he was a Shinobi, and he was a worthy one at that. Naruto's fist came closer to Sasuke and he responded in kind by sending his fist out to meet with Naruto's closing one. As one their fists met in between them and sent out a colossal explosion of chakra.

"You said that when strong Shinobi match blows they can tell what each other are thinking, you said that to me the last time we fought here, do you still believe it?" Sasuke asked Naruto as they stood in the same place looking at each other Sharingan to Kyuubi eye.

"What I believe in does not matter anymore, we shall both die here and as such neither of us can disrupt this world anymore" Naruto answered almost coldly to the Uchiha which surprised him greatly.

"Why are you so sure that we shall both die? If I beat you then only you shall die" Sasuke said to the serious face of Naruto who did not even seem to be entirely fazed by what Sasuke had said.

"It does not matter, either way neither of us is walking out of here alive" Naruto answered him as he retracted his hand back and jumped back slightly. The demon shroud around Naruto slowly melted away and left in the same place was Naruto standing tall without the red chakra floating over him.

"It looks like that chakra that gave you so much power had left, is that all you had to offer me?" Sasuke asked Naruto in his most snide manner looking across the battlefield at his rival with a grin. Naruto simply stared back at him through almost dead eyes as he simply moved in to a Taijutsu stance. "So you want to settle this in close combat do you?" Sasuke grinned to his opponent "Very well" Sasuke finished before he sped across the valley ground towards Naruto and leapt into the air.

* * *

><p>Hurtling through the air Sasuke aimed a round house kick right at Naruto's face which was deflected by Naruto crossing his arms across his chest and taking the full brunt of the hit. Sasuke landed on the ground into a kneeling position as Naruto skidded across the ground due to the force of the hit. Sasuke tore across the ground again and sent his right fist racing in front of himself towards the face of Naruto. Naruto stopped skidding and instantly dug his feet into the ground applying a great amount of chakra into his feet to steady himself, after doing this he brought his fist forwards and again the two rival's fists met in between them and created a massive explosion of chakra.<p>

Naruto began to skid back even with the application of his chakra looking up to the face of Sasuke Naruto found what he was not expecting. Sasuke's eyes were back to their original black colouration and his eyes did not look full of hate like Naruto had expected but full of pain. The shock that registered on Naruto's face made him lose concentration and as such the chakra applied to his feet lazed down and he was sent careening right into one of the canyon walls.

Naruto pulled himself out of the crater that his impact had created and landed on the ground below him without once taking his eyes off Sasuke. He was not mistaken those eyes were back to normal and held nothing but pain, what it was tha gave sasuek so much pain Naruto could not tell. Whether it be from what he had said about Itachi or the fact that they were fighting and Naruto said neither of them would live.

"Sasuke, why did you deactivate your Sharingan? I thought you wanted me dead?" Naruto asked his rival as the other teen appeared before him through the mist being picked up from the falling waters of the waterfall they were next to. Naruto could see the faintest flicker of a smile appear on Sasuke's face before it disappeared and the normal glare was back.

"You would not stand a chance against me if I were to use those eyes, I don't want this fight to end so quickly" Sasuke answered back condescendingly as he stood with his head held high as if to try and show his dominance of the situation. Naruto grinned again and flet a chuckle roll off of his tongue.

"Heh, if you say so Sasuke" Naruto responded as he stood up again, performing his trademark seals Naruto crossed his fingers across each other. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he called out as again four Naruto's appeared from the smoke around him. Without even a seconds hesitation all of the clones upped and out of there'd. Sasuke watched all of them leave the battle field with confusion.

"Why did you send those clones away? What possible advantage could they give you if I just reactivate my Sharingan and can see them?" Sasuke asked his rival as a very wide grin spread across the face of Naruto.

"You said you didn't want this fight to finish too soon, so I'm making sure that it doesn't" Naruto responded as he threw his hand behind him and began to rotate chakra within his hand. Within seconds the Rasengan had appeared and Naruto grinned to Sasuke as he in turn held his hand in front of himself and ran the energies of Chidori along his hand. Both ran at each other with their trademark attacks prepared and thrust them forward.

Chidori met Rasengan and created yet another great explosion of chakra that sent a plume of pure chakra up into the air acting like a great beacon of pure chakra. If one looked close enough they could see the nine tailed fox and a great eagle of chakra fighting within the giant plume of chakra. The chakra died down to reveal both combatants within a large dome-shaped crater with each of them plastered into the earth at opposite ends form each other.

* * *

><p>Sasuke picked himself out of the hole in which his body had been thrust into due to the force created with their clash. Grumbling things about being blown into walls too much for one day he removed himself entirely from the hole in which he had created. The same thing was going on with Naruto as he too picked himself out of the rubble, reaching the entrance of his hole he leapt to the centre of the dome shaped crater. Sasuke was again within him soon enough as he landed down in front of him with some of his clothes now looking like he had taken damage. The sleeves of his robe were all but gone except a few tattered remains.<p>

"You might want to reactivate your Sharingan Sasuke" Naruto said as a smile started to play on his lips, he closed his eyes after saying that which caused Sasuke to get just a tad irritated.

"And why would I need to do that Dobe?" Sasuke asked as he crossed his arms whilst looking at Naruto's smile widening by the second after he had finished asking.

"Because you didn't want this fight to be over too soon…" Naruto responded as he opened his eyes to reveal horizontal slits across where his pupil should be and orange tattoo's under each of his eyes, his grin growing to its full size he finished his explanation. "And without them it will be" Naruto finished as he flew forwards towards Sasuke.

He flung a right handed punch towards Sasuke's face which Sasuke was able to dodge but seconds after dodging the punch he felt a great force acting upon his cheek and sent him flying through the air. Landing with the grace that he was allowed as a more sleek ninja Sasuke looked to Naruto and activated his Sharingan, he was again coated within chakra, but this time it was not from the nine-tailed fox, no this time it was as if nature herself was helping Naruto.

Naruto began charging up a Rasengan again and forced his hand back again but before he finished charging it he added his elemental affinity. With a whirring noise entering the area Sasuke watched as Naruto's Rasengan began to look like a ball of wind but eventually extending out from this all of wind was four blades, much like a shuriken. With a roar Naruto brought his arm around in an arc, Sasuke waited expecting Naruto to charge at him but was surprised when Naruto released the Rasengan and threw it at him.

"Fuuton: Rasenshurriken!" Naruto yelled over the definite screeching of the Rasengan shuriken. The Rasengan closed in on Sasuke and he had to leap out of its path as it closed in on him, but to his surprise the Rasengan began to chase him. In mid-air he turned around and looked directly at the Rasengan chasing him. "Amateresu!" he yelled at the whirling ball of chakra. Black flames coated the Rasengan ball and with fire being winds elemental weakness the wind element was lost going with it the whirring blades and the Rasengan itself disappeared.

Sasuke landed on the ground again and turned to Naruto with an almost proud smile on his face, his former teammate had definitely improved in the last three years. had he stayed in the village he had no doubt that Naruto would be the strongest of all Shinobi within Konoha. As it was fate had other ideas for both of them and had brought them here to their final battle where one of them had to die, or as Naruto insisted both of them.

"Where did you learn that ability Naruto?" Sasuke asked finally dropping all of his old insults. Naruto looked at Sasuke with a proud smile on his face.

"I made it myself Sasuke, it couldn't be learned because it had to first be accomplished" Naruto explained as Sasuke stood still looking at Naruto confused as to what he meant with that statement.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked with his smile fading and his look of confusion taking over his face.

"I mean the Fourth made the Rasengan with the intention of adding elemental affinity to it but he died before he could do it, I managed to finally master and complete the Rasengan in my father's place" Naruto answered and found it rather amusing the way that Sasuke's face looked the most surprised Naruto had ever seen him in their time knowing each other.

"So what you are saying is not only did you complete a jutsu that even the Fourth Hokage could not complete but that you are in fact the son of the Fourth?" Sasuke asked as he allowed his surprise to shine through clearly.

"That is exactly what I am saying" Naruto responded as he smiled at Sasuke while his Sage Mode wore off and he returned to normal in front of Sasuke.

"Then what about the sealing of the Kyuubi in you? Don't you hate your father for giving you such a burden? How can speak of him so proudly after something like that?" Sasuke asked sounding much more concerned than he really should have been over the whole thing.

"He found it unfair to ask that someone else sacrifice their child for the sealing process so thought it logical to use his own son, I don't hate him because of it because although it has been a bumpy ride here I am before you a ninja ready to lay down his life for those he loves" Naruto responded to the still shocked Sasuke.

"Ever the idiot aren't you Naruto? Don't you think that the village will be overjoyed when the Kyuubi container is gone?" Sasuke asked as he got himself into his Taijutsu stance. Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders in indifference.

"I don't care if the villagers are happy over my death, I recently have come to the conclusion that I only care about those close to me, I know they will miss me and that is enough for me. Even then I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for you" Naruto responded simply as he smiled at Sasuke.

Sasuke kicked for Naruto's head as he finished and followed up with a punch that Naruto managed to catch within his right hand. "What do you mean you are doing this for me! This is a fight to the death where either of us will die! Why are you still so concerned with me!" Sasuke yelled as Naruto held his fist within his hand. Naruto's smile widened to the extent that he cocked his head and closed his eyes.

"It's because I love you Sasuke" Naruto answered as Sasuke looked to him in complete and utter shock, to say those words in a situation like this could only be seen as mad.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked as the confusion could be hear gripping at his voice as he asked Naruto that question.

"Exactly what I said, you were the first bond I ever created in the village and soon I came to view you what I thought a brother would be like, I love you as I would any brother I had, and because of my love for you we both must die so that neither of us can harm this world any more than we already have" Naruto answered as Sasuke's hand fell to his side. A small laugh left his mouth and for once it was not filled with malice or hatred but genuine laughter.

"I have been so caught up in my hatred that I have not taken the time out to consider any other emotions I may still have. For so long I wanted to kill Itachi only to find out that he actually loved me after I had actually killed him, that hurt me beyond what injuries can do and now you tell me the same thing, I cannot kill you even if I wanted to" Sasuke said as he looked up to Naruto with his normal eyes back and a smile upon his face. Naruto looked to him and felt a smile of his own appearing on his face.

* * *

><p>"Well that is definitely a problem, fortunate enough I can kill him" came a voice from behind Naruto. Before either could turn to the newcomer a sword was impaled right through Naruto, right through his stomach. Naruto grunted in pain before he felt around the area of his stomach and could feel the cold steel of the blade before looking down and seeing for himself the blade protruding from him. Off in the distance three explosions of nature chakra signalled the clones exploding due to the loss of communication with Naruto.<p>

"NARUTO!" Sasuke yelled in distinct fear and rage so loud that it echoed around the entire Valley of the End. His eyes flashed to his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and within seconds he was covered in the orange flames that signified his Sussano'o taking form over him. The Sussano'o had instead of his bow and arrow it used to own it now had a sword much like Itachi's and shield much the same. Sasuke swung the large sword of chakra towards the form of Madara who was in the process of leaving the area with Naruto in tow. As such his flaming sword of chakra passed right through Madara as he was gone before Sasuke could even hit him. Madara's laughter continued on as he left the area leaving Sasuke to think about the fact that Naruto was gone and in dire trouble. Madara had the final Biju required to make the Juubi and he had helped him to get it. In his sudden anger he roared in his fury and swiped his sword at the statue of Madara upwards and cut a split right though the statue, toe to head.

The chakra beast disappeared from over him and Sasuke was left himself in the destroyed valley that he and Naruto had reshaped with their battle. Craters lay all over the place from where they impacted and where their attacks impacted. He was not left to admire the destruction he and Naruto had wrought as he was joined by two familiar chakra signatures.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, how may I help you?" Sasuke asked in a voice that didn't sound so much cold as it sounded dead and emotionless.

"Where is Naruto?" Kakashi asked getting directly to the point and at seeing Sasuke turn around he reached for his newly acquired sword Throat cutter. Sasuke looked directly at him without any hint of malice in his eyes before saying. He's gone".

That was all that was needed as kakashi's visible eye widened in evident anger and he brought his huge sword down upon the traitorous Uchiha. Sasuke quickly brought his own sword out to block the larger sword and only done so just in time. Kakashi charged his lightning chakra through the sword in his anger and caused Sasuke to do the same thing if only to stop his old sensei's onslaught.

"Naruto loved you more than he did most others and you repay him by killing him!" Kakashi shot at Sasuke with hate filled fury in his voice as he pushed even harder on his large sword exerting the last of his chakra against the Uchiha. With that his fatigue from the battle previously as his final use of his chakra the lightning chakra disappeared from his blade. Sasuke was unprepared for this nd as such his sword passed right through throat cutter and cut off its tip.

Sakura was left against the last Uchiha alone and looked to him with fear. He could see the fear evident in her eyes but what he could also see was the pain that she had in her eyes. That pain had appeared once she had found out Naruto was gone. Kakashi collapsed onto the ground and fell unconscious. With that the last of what Kakashi could remember about that day was gone, the next thing he could remember was waking up within a hospital tent with his wounds being mended.

He was later told that when he was found there was no sign of Sakura and when queried about Sasuke's whereabouts the nurses said they knew nothing of him either. This lead Kakashi to believe that Sasuke had killed Sakura or even worse she had finally crumbled and left at his side.

Not long after he heard that the Fourth Shinobi War had ended due to some strange disturbances when Madara finally became the Jinchuriki of the Juubi. He had heard mixed reports that when the creature went into Madara he became a God on the battlefield but after some time of fighting the biju literally tore itself away from Madara, killing him in the process and simply vanished without any better explanation.

Kakashi felt like a failure big style, all of his students were gone or dead now, what a failure of a sensei he felt like. He spent many days out by the memorial stone looking at the names of those that were lost during all of the Shinobi Wars. There were so many over the four of them that a second stone had to be erected.

_**Flashback End**_

* * *

><p>Once Kakashi had finished recounting his story his eyes had begun to water due to the painful memories that he was being subject to. Asura had since he had started weeping moved from her sitting position to holding a hand on her sensei's shoulder, he held his own hand over hers in silent thanks. Kenichi and Haruna had been silent throughout the entire retelling of the great battle between the Uchiha and Uzumaki. The battle had become one of legends as was to be expected but not in the way some would have wanted. It became known as 'The Great Tragedy' and was seen as the point when things looked their bleakest for the Allied Shinobi forces.<p>

"Kakashi-sensei?" Kenichi began carefully trying not to provoke his sensei the wrong way since it was apparent he was in an emotional state. He was hgowever out of danger as Kakashi looked up to him and nodded his head. "Why is the fight between Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki seen as the Great Tragedy?" Kenichi asked apparently without knowledge of the meaning behind that phrase.

"It is called that because it is seen as the darkest time in that war, what you have to realize is that Naruto was our trump card and the final biju of the puzzle, the Raikage's brother had already been captured and had his biju forcibly extracted by this point. With Naruto essentially captured and the extraction process killing Naruto that place was seen as a great tragedy because the world was doomed but also because a great ninja was killed" Kakashi answered his team as they all nodded their head in understanding. They sat in pregnant silence for a long time before Kakashi stood upp and stretched.

"Now enough with our history lessons, you should have learned that in the academy, go and prepare, we leave for the bandit camp tonight" Kakashi ordered as his team scattered around the room preparing all of their equipment for the task ahead. Kakashi prepared himself too, he reached into his pocket and retrieved a scroll he had not looked at in almost six years now. Performing the necessary seals a puff of smoke appeared in place of the scroll and the broken throat cutter appeared in his hand in its holster already. Tying the holster around his chest he placed his sword upon his back and stood at the window watching as the night fell over the village.

* * *

><p>"Do you ever think about our past?" came the feminine voice to the man's left, he turned to look at her to find her looking up to the starry sky through the straw hat that she wore.<p>

"Do you mean ours or all of ours?" the man asked her as her attention was brought from the starry sky with a smile on her face while she playfully hit him.

"I mean all of ours, I don't need to think about ours I'm happy the way things turned out for us" the woman said happily as she turned her attention back to the starry sky which the man followed suit in doing.

"Sometimes yes, it comes and goes I guess, what about you?" he asked her without looking at her.

"Same I guess" she replied before he heard her whine while still looking to the sky, he turned to look at he while he questioned her on what the matter was.

"What is it?" he asked seriously.

"Here I was enjoying the night in all of it's beauty and now I can feel four chakra signatures closing in on our position, it would appear that we are not the only ones who answered to the cry for help" the woman answered as the man quickly though up an explanation to such a chnge of events.

"How strong are they?" the man asked while making his way down from the high outcropping of rocks that the pair had been standing on. He was stopped when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder and he turned to look into the woman's face to see a smile.

"they are only three Genin and a Jonin, it's a sensei and his team, we should not worry about them too much" the woman said as she brought him back up to where he had been standing. "Anyway, I think I know who the instructor is" the woman finished off with a smile beginning to form on her lips.

* * *

><p>"Alright team now remember what I said, try to stick together and if you cannot kill the bandits then do not allow them to, incapacitate them if you cannot kill them" Kakashi ordered as he heard resounding answers of 'yes Sensei 'and at that they landed just outside of the place where the bandits were rumoured to be hiding out.<p>

What they were met with was a sight that took even the venerable Kakashi by surprise, he had never seen carnage quite like this in all of his lifetime. Bodies lay strewn all over the place alongside body parts. Tents were all but destroyed as they too lay all over the place while kunai and shuriken alike were stuck into the ground and surrounding trees at all different kinds of angles. There were even some flames slowly burning away at one of the trees whilst Kakashi could feel resounding energies of lightning chakra dancing not far off.

Up ahead they heard an almighty clang of metal meeting metal directly ahead of them. Kakashi looked to his squad and indicated to them to stick close to him, it was clear to see that they had been beaten here but they were going to find out exactly who it was and see just who could cause such destruction.

As they approached a large cliff face they could see a flash coming from around the other side of the wall accompanied by a loud and masculine roaring. It was then later countered by a masculine voice screaming in pain and yelling retorts back at the one who had apparently attacked him. Kakashi edged around the cliff face to see something that he had not seen in six years, the Akatsuki cloak.

The wearer of this robe was currently taking on someone who looked like he was the leader of the bandit party and was by all visual accounts just toying with the bandit leader. Where the leader would try to punch the man in the Akatsuki robe the man would weave around the attack and deliver one of his own attacks quickly after. With one of the punches the man in the akatsuki robe seemed to be tired of the fight and grabbed the leader by his arm. With little application of force he sent the bandit leader towards the wall that Kakashi and his team were hiding behind.

"Get down!" Kakashi yelled to his students and at his command they done as told and all hit the ground instantly as the leader collided with the wall and passed through it due to the amount of force he was under. Kakashi managed to cover all three of his students with his own body so as to protect them from the falling debris. As the debris stopped falling Kakashi stood up again and brushed the debris off his body before making sure that his team were alright. Kenichi and Asura were fine but Haruna had a swollen leg which Kakashi took as being broken. After going over his diagnosis of his team he turned to the man who had caused the destruction.

An Akatsuki, this made things very hard, they were always S-ranked criminals and he had no doubt that this one was probably one too, his cloak was admittedly in pieces as his torso was clear to the world. His long black hair covered any chances Kakashi had of seeing the face of his opponent.

"Kenichi, Asura, get Haruna out of here! I will cover you!" Kakashi yelled to the two who were standing before he turned on the sole opponent who was still standing as he had been before. He had on black sandals pants and arm warmers much like Sasuke had at one point besides the fact the were white and his Akatsuki robe that was in bits upon his body. However when Kakashi heard the evident sounds of his team doing as they had been asked to he was terrified when two others who were also dressed in Akatsuki robes dropped down next to the first man.

"You don't need to worry about us attacking you, we only killed the bandits because they posed a threat to peace, you four however don't need to fear us" a feminine voice assured them as Kakashi heard his team stopping in hopes that what the woman was saying was true.

"We would never hurt the students of Kakashi-sensei anyway, we know what he'd do if we did, eh Kakashi-sensei?" came a male voice that had Kakashi reeling, just who were these people?

His question was very quickly answered when the two who had just entered the area removed their straw hats to reveal who they were. Kakashi had not been so shocked in a long time. There before him on either side of the man heaving after fighting like he had were Sasuke and Sakura, both wearing the Akatsuki robes.

"Hello sensei, it's been a while hasn't it?" Sakura asked Kakashi sweetly however noticed that kakashi's attention was not on her but instead on Sasuke. Kakashi suddenly formed a Chidori on his hand, not stupid enough to run wildly into conflict he done what Sasuke had been able to accomplish. He extended the Chidori into a spear and shot it directly towards Sasuke.

"Chidori!" Kakashi yelled as the bolt of lightning shot towards Sasuke at lightning speed, both Sasuke and Sakura were unprepared for the sudden brutality from their old sensei and were too slow to act. Sasuke was only saved from the man at his side swishing his arm and hand in the direction of the Chidori spear and casting pure wind into the path of the Chidori. With that it was stopped completely.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei I can't let you kill Sasuke, after all I love him like I would a brother" the man in the middle said finally uttering something. But that something was what caught Kakashi by surprise the most. As the centre man lifted his head Kakashi finally saw his face, he could see the two things that would have made his presence clearer quicker. The man had whisker marks and cerulean blue eyes that seemed endless.

"Naruto…" Kakashi said quietly as he allowed the fact that Naruto was standing before him sink in entirely. Naruto turned to his old sensei with a ghost of a smile on his face as he done so.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei it is me, in the flesh, I'm glad to see that you are still alive and well too sensei" Naruto responded with genuine happiness in his voice. Kakashi was too shocked to respond as he just could not take in the fact that it was in fact Naruto in front of him.

* * *

><p><em>Well here is the next chapter you guys, I apologise if the fight between Sasuke and Naruto was not to the best calibre but its my first attempt at Sasuke vs Naruto. Other than that I hope that you enjoyed the chapter as it is and I hope you shall enjoy future chapters I write. Anyway I hope you enjoy and I shall see you all in my next instalment of whatever story I write fo. As always R&amp;R please and enjoy=] - Varrukh<em>


	3. Chapter 3 Homeward Bound

Kakashi stood staring at the three in front of him dumbly as he took in just who were indeed standing before him. It couldn't be, this was his old team all of its members alive and well even though one of them was supposed to be dead. Clearly that was what was running through the minds of his team as they had all not moved since the trio had come into the area.

"Kakashi-sensei, why did you call that guy Naruto? I thought he was dead?" Kenichi asked from behind his teacher only to see the smile that spread across the face of Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto himself however had eyes for his sensei only.

"You can't kill this guy, trust me I've already tried in the past and simply could never do it" Sasuke replied to the young ninja who took a frightened jump when Sasuke began to speak.

"Who are you?" Kenichi asked Sasuke as he looked to the raven haired man with much distrust written on his face. Sasuke simple smiled and looked directly at him.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, the last Uchiha" Sasuke answered receiving two gasps from the girls of the team. Kenichi finally understanding just who he was faced against stepped to his left, standing in front of the two girls in his team. He spread his arms wide in order to protect them to his fullest extent.

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing!" Asura roared at her male comrade, to treat her as a weak female incapable of defending herself was more than an insult to her. She went to get up to hit him for such an insult but before she could do this Haruna had grabbed onto the hem of her white shirt. Asura looked down to Haruna who was sitting on a fallen rock from the cliff face. The look Haruna gave her told her that it was unwise to do anything like that in this situation.

"I'm protecting a fallen comrade and my other teammate, what else?" Kenichi answered back simply as he did not turn to them, not wanting to take his eyes off the traitorous Uchiha. He had left the village for his own reasons and had turned his back on his teammates; something Kakashi had said was lower than scum.

Kakashi was smiling to himself as he heard the way his team argued, it may make the situation more dangerous but that was just the way they worked and they were a good team, Kenichi just wanted to protect his teammates, there was no nonsense for that boy now.

* * *

><p><em>Flashback<em>

Kakashi had finished a day of training for his team and had told them that they were able to go home and rest, he had been teaching them some basic hand to hand combat. While Haruna and Asura were definitely capable of defending themselves in close combat, whenever they were against Kenichi they could best him every time that they tried to do so. Kakashi just could not understand why Kenichi would not fight them; they were not weak by no means. Haruna was a Hyuga and as such had her own fighting style and Asura was a Yamanaka, even though they may be more suited to mind techniques she was not a weakling.

He had even seen Kenichi fight in the past he was indeed strong and very easily capable of at least fighting the girls to a standstill but even so he would not fight them with all he had. Kakashi watched as Asura and Haruna walked out of the training area talking happily between themselves, when he did not see Kenichi walking out amongst the two girls he left them to make their way home and ventured back into the training area.

It was not long before he found Kenichi. He was standing in the centre of the clearing that the training ground was situated. Kakashi approached the boy and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder looking in the same direction as the boy.

"What are you looking at Kenichi?" Kakashi asked his one male student, Kenichi took a while to answer as he kept on staring at whatever it had been that had grabbed his attention. Eventually Kenichi tuned in to the fact that his Sensei had been talking to him.

"I guess I'm not actually looking at anything but more imagining things and letting my daydream take over" Kenichi admitted as he absentmindedly rubbed the back of his head as if there was some kind of persistent itch. "Sorry sensei I didn't mean to waste time" Kenichi said to Kakashi eventually making his way out of the training ground.

He only got so far before a hand was placed upon his right shoulder and he was stopped. Looking up he was brought face to face with the one visible eye of Kakashi curved as it would when he smiled.

"You have not wasted time, now why don't you tell me what may be on your mind?" Kakashi asked his student as he could see the way Kenichi's black eyes slightly widened in surprise as his sensei had already seen through him like that, damn Sharingan. Kenichi then went on to sigh heavily as he knew what was on his mind was going to be brought to the front and he did not much look forward to it.

"Far too much sensei" Kenichi said simply as he looked up to his sensei, Kakashi could see the attempt at a short answer to a long winded explanation and nodded his head in order to show Kenichi that he could go on. "Where do I begin sensei, there is so much on my mind that I don't know where I should really start" Kenichi admitted to his sensei as he looked to the man with an almost lost expression that spoke plenty of words on its own. Kakashi lifted his hand from the boy's shoulder and folded it across his chest and looked directly at the boy.

"Okay I will start off with what has got me concerned over the last few days…" Kakashi waited as Kenichi simply looked up to his with confusion within his eyes before he continued. "… Why do you refuse to fight Asura and Haruna on equal terms?" Kakashi asked him in his very straight forward manner.

Kenichi seemed almost surprised at Kakashi's choice of question, but his surprise slowly faded away until he was looking at the ground.

"I used to have a family once sensei, I was the only boy with three older sisters. They were all active Shinobi at the time of the Fourth Shinobi War" Kenichi began as tears were already making themselves known on his face as he remembered the faces of his sisters. "They all died" Kenichi finished so suddenly as he lifted his head up and stared directly at Kakashi. Kakashi saw a glint of something malicious in his eyes for the barest of seconds, but saw it nonetheless.

Kakashi sighed heavily before he talked to Kenichi again. "I lost my dad, it wasn't because of a war or because of a fight even, it was simply due to his actions and the way that everyone ridiculed him for said actions" Kakashi began as he could see that Kenichi was looking at him and thankfully that look had disappeared. "He killed himself because he could no longer take the ridicule" Kakashi finished and looked to see Kenichi's shocked face staring at him.

"Now I am sure that you are wondering why would your sensei so suddenly tell you something like this even though they do not seem too closely related?" Kakashi asked Kenichi and received a nod in reply to which he then continued on. "Quite simply do not let things like that cloud your judgment, take events such as them as experience and use them to strengthen your resolve in the future" Kakashi answered to which Kenichi simply looked at him before again looking to the ground.

"It's not that I am ashamed of my sisters for their sacrifice, quite the opposite sensei" Kenichi began as he looked up to Kakashi again with tears beginning to come to his eyes. "I'm proud of my sisters, they fought for something they believed in and gave their lives so that me and my mom could live on, I wish they didn't have to die" Kenichi continued as tears began making their way down his cheeks. Kakashi stayed in position, he would allow the boy to finish before comforting him.

"I feel sad every time I think about the fact my sisters are all dead, I feel sad that I was too young to be of any use to any of them, only able to sit and watch and eventually hear as they were called out as some who had fallen in battle" Kenichi was by now openly crying, trying to cover his eyes with his right hand and arm as his left hand lay at his side clenched tightly. "It was hard on me and my mom, she was crying every day and I had to look after both of us for so long, all the way up until my mom died of a broken heart" Kenichi had fallen to the ground by now and no longer cared about what his sensei saw, he openly screamed out his pain.

"I've lost every single girl that was ever important to me sensei, I don't want to lose any more, I can't take it, it hurts too much. I loved my mom, I loved my sisters, now they are all gone and I'm all alone because I was too weak when they needed me at the right time" Kenichi finished as he simply fell to the ground completely exhausted, that had been six years of pain building up over time and finally he had exploded, he was completely empty.

Kakashi was speechless. This kid had been through so much, it made him remember another kid who had been through a hard childhood, it was by far worse than Kenichi's but the kid was still hurting heavily. Which was rather evident because of the boy lying at his feet whimpering every once in a while. But just as suddenly as that Kenichi stopped whimpering and lifted himself up off of the ground and stood up again, looking directly at Kakashi with eyes full of determination.

"I refuse to do anything that will put them in jeopardy, they have become the only two girls that I care about now, I refuse to do anything that might harm them, and I will give my own life if it means they will be safe. I do not care if they hate me for it, I care about them too much to let them be hurt" Kenichi finally answered Kakashi as he stood tall again. To say Kakashi was impressed would be an understatement. His student had went from a whimpering wreck not moments ago to come full circle and be back on his feet again completely determined again.

This boy would almost definitely become a fearsome adversary on the battlefield, that same look returned. The one that spoke of great pain and torture, of nothing but malicious intent but Kakashi could understand it now. Those were his eyes whenever he spoke of Asura and Haruna, those were eyes that relayed his love and care for both of the girls while at the same time warned others not to even attempt anything with those girls.

_**Flashback Ends**_

* * *

><p>And right now those were Kenichi's eyes as they were trained on Sasuke and Sasuke alone. He viewed the man as a threat and as such he had stood in position in front of both of the girls. Sasuke looked at the way the boy had stood and smiled at him.<p>

"I like you kid, without even seeing anything that you are capable of I am sure that if you were a few years older you would be an excellent addition to our ranks" Sasuke spoke out to the boy in a much more warm manner than Kakashi had ever heard the boy speak before. Kenichi simply looked at the man in surprise, as did Asura and Haruna and Kakashi.

"And what would those ranks be exactly Sasuke?" Kakashi asked carefully, partially already knowing the answer to the question if the clothing attire was anything to go by.

"The Akatsuki of course" came the reply but not from Sasuke, it came instead from Sakura who was still standing beside Naruto, who's gaze was now looking over all four of the Leaf Shinobi. Kakashi had feared that answer and took a step back so as to cover his team much better.

"So my three former students have joined one of the largest criminal organizations in the world, I feel like the worst sensei imaginable" Kakashi said in a half joking and half sad manner.

"That is not what Akatsuki is" Naruto's voice called over the whole area, causing everyone's eyes to turn to him, even his comrades. "Akatsuki was originally formed by Yahiko, Nagato and Konan as an organisation of peace, what we knew was a perversion of that organisation, my Akatsuki stays true to the original ideals of peace" Naruto finished as he now stood straight again. It was only then that Kakashi could see Naruto for all of his grandeur, Naruto was much taller than he had been, he was definitely taller than his comrades by a couple of inches and he was also physically well-built too.

"You, young man, do you wish for peace?" Naruto asked as he directed his attention towards Kenichi who simply stared back at the behemoth of a man. After a moment's thought Kenichi nodded his head in the affirmative and received a smile from Naruto in return, a smile filled with much warmth that it surprised everyone there, besides Sasuke and Sakura. With that smile Kakashi was reminded of a time when Naruto was younger and that smile would show his absolute happiness, not his mask.

"Then as Sasuke said, you would make a fine addition to our ranks, we only ask that you wish for peace and you will be accepted, but again as Sasuke said you would have to be older" Naruto finished as he again smiled at the boy.

"Who the hell said I wanted to join?" Kenichi yelled at the smiling face of Naruto, which did not falter even though he was being shouted at. Kenichi did not know where he had gotten that idea from but he knew for a fact that if he was not with Asura or Haruna then he could not protect either of them.

"No-one did say you wanted to join, Sasuke just made a point and I wished to clear up any questions before they had the time to form, it was in no way an insinuation at all, you have my word" Naruto said in a very formal voice which scared Kakashi, never had Naruto been anything like this in the past.

"As it is I do believe that we should make our way home would you not agree?" Naruto asked Sasuke and Sakura, both looked to him and shrugged their shoulders.

"You just made me leader for this mission, so since the mission is a success you are the leader again" Sasuke said to Naruto as he took a second to think about it before a grin reached his face and he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Oh yeah" Naruto laughed awkwardly before he turned to the four leaf Shinobi before them and smiled widely at them. "Don't worry about this mission, I will report that Konoha got here before us and took care of the threat themselves" Naruto said to Kakashi as he began to walk away.

"Naruto stop!" Kakashi yelled at the back of the black haired man. Said man turned around to his former sensei with a look of confusion on his face as to why he was stopped. "How can you be alive?" Kakashi finally asked the question that had been bugging him ever since he had seen Naruto alive and well.

Naruto smiled at the question. "There were creatures of pure chakra running around, Lady Chiyo was able to bring back Gaara from the dead and there were many former members of Akatsuki who were immortal. I am alive because the world we live in has strong forces the likes of which some could only ever imagine, I am alive because one man thought that he could contain a beast so powerful that only the sage of the six paths could do so successfully, because of Madara's folly I am alive" Naruto finished as he began to walk away.

"You cant possibly mean?" Kakashi began to ask as Naruto walked away only to receive his answer in a much more visual way. As Naruto walked a black chakra cloak overtook his form as if it were bubbling liquid. Then a singular tail sprouted out from the area of his lower back, followed by a second and third. The process continued until all nine tails were out behind him, with that he turned back to the shocked form of Kakashi and put on a devilish grin that would have made Orochimaru nervous.

"Yep, I am" was all Naruto said before a tenth tail erupted from his lower back and physically showed Kakashi what was the power of all the tailed beasts combined. Naruto was what Madara had wanted to be, Naruto was the ten-tailed Jinchuriki. As soon as the tenth tail came out from his body his entire Akatsuki attire, or all that was left of it turned white with black clouds and his hair got white streaks throughout it. With a grin Naruto suddenly dropped the tailed beast cloak and turned to walk away.

"Now go an receive your pay for a job well done you guys, maybe we shall see each other again sometime in the future" Naruto shouted over his shoulder as he began to walk away with his hands behind his head and Sasuke and Sakura walking after him, side by side.

* * *

><p>The trek homewards was in complete silence. Kakashi had yet to fully accept that it was his team that he had seen and his team were walking in silence because of the very people they had just met. They had just met an S and A-ranked missing nin, Sasuke Uchiha the famed last Uchiha and traitor to Konoha, also the very man who killed the villages last hope of victory. Sakura Haruno was not as deadly as Sasuke in regards to strength but she was a worthy adversary, she was close to Tsunade in strength and knowledge of medical ninjutsu.<p>

All in all they had just stared death in the face and walked away without even a scratch. What scared them though, what really scared them was the company that Sasuke and Sakura had. Naruto Uzumaki, every history book and piece of text they had been taught while in the academy had told them that Naruto was an exceptional Shinobi, one of the best, almost certainly the next Hokage after the Fifth. It was because of Naruto that the Sand-Sound invasion had been repelled and the reason the Pain invasion had finally ended, with many of those killed in the fight coming back to life.

Naruto was a legend amongst Genin, it showed all of them that even if they could never get any higher than Genin in rank they could reach high and reach up to stars that they never believed it possible to touch. His example showed everyone that if you worked yourself as hard as you could and burn yourself into the ground almost you would come away from it with something gained, whether it be experience or strength, either way it helped. To have met such a man was both mind-numbing and impossible at the same time, and currently Team seven were still trying to get their heads around the fact they had met the Hero of Konoha.

"Sensei, was that really Uzumaki Naruto?" Haruna asked finally breaking the silence that had taken over the group as they slowly made their trek homewards. She was currently riding piggyback on Kenichi's back and had Asura walking beside them, Kakashi walking at the front.

"I'm not entirely sure myself Haruna, as far as I knew he is dead, the Juubi was created at the climax of the Last Shinobi War which means that Naruto had to die" Kakashi answered his student who in turn looked even more confused, this was shared amongst her teammates who were similarly perplexed.

"Why is that sensei?" Kenichi asked as he hoisted Haruna a little higher onto his back, hoping to make it slightly more comfortable for her. That was not entirely the case as it jiggled her injured ankle, she bit through the pain however, just as interested in her sensei's answer.

Kakashi stopped in the middle of the track road they were travelling on and turned to all of his students assembled. Both of his walking students stopped at the sudden halting of Kakashi. He looked at all of them individually before seeing the looks that crossed their faces, they were scared? Ok yes maybe they had spoken about a subject close to his heart but he never would have thought them to believe him of any violence towards them.

"There is a reason that Naruto had to die but first of all for you to understand I must teach you something" Kakashi said as he turned and began to walk again. "I will teach you what a Jinchuriki is and then you will understand, so let's keep going until we get home" Kakashi said as Asura ran to catch up to him.

Kenichi was not so quick to catch up and due to the fact Haruna was stuck on his back she was not amused, she wanted to know about this stuff Damnit! "Hey! Get moving! I want to find out what it is Kakashi-sensei is saying!" Haruna yelled to him as she whacked him on the back of his head, causing the usual grunt of pain. This time though instead of turning around and arguing with her Kenichi simply took it and continued onwards. "Kenichi…?" Haruna began before she was cut off by Kenichi.

"Your ankle is hurt, if I move too fast I could shake it and then the pain would increase" Kenichi answered without even looking back to her. Haruna was left in shocked silence, Kenichi never acted like this; he was always one to be more joking around and making a general fool of himself. Ever since he had seen that Uchiha guy though it was as if a light switch had been changed in his mind and he was much more cold and calculative, even his voice as he spoke was cold.

She was not the only one to overhear the way that Kenichi had spoken and soon enough they walked towards the halted figure of Kakashi who was standing by the side of the road. Once they reached him he indicated towards the trees.

"We've been walking ever since we left the bandit camp last night, I think that we deserve a rest, don't you guys?" Kakashi said to his students. Asura and Haruna looked to each other while shrugging their shoulders; Kakashi looked between them and smiled before his vision fell on Kenichi who simply showed no obvious emotion. This was not looking so good at all.

"Right, this way, let's finds a good secluded area, with plenty of cover" Kakashi said in his normal voice, even if it was tinted with the slightest amount of fear. None of them were able to pick up on it though and he thanked God for that. Kenichi simply moved forwards without any prompting from Kakashi or Asura, and the look that Haruna gave Kakashi he could tell that something was deeply troubling Kenichi.

* * *

><p>After a small while of looking and them finally creating their camp the team settled in to the small circular camp that they had created, Kenichi had not put Haruna down the entire time that they had been creating camp, no matter how much the other three objected to this. It had eventually turned into a futile effort as Kenichi acted ignorant to everything everyone said, as such Haruna was not released from his grip until there was a small fire burning.<p>

Haruna had flew into a complete angry fit once she was finally released from his grip and shouted many profanities at Kenichi even going as far to throw stones and objects at him. It was no use, no matter what she did she could not get him to look at her or to acknowledge any of the things she was saying or doing. Kenichi walked until he was at the foot of an average sized tree, applying some of the chakra control training Kakashi had given them all he ran up the tree until he had reached a high branch and sat himself down.

"I guess we knew who is taking first watch" Kakashi said as he sat at the fire looking at Haruna who was eventually joined by Asura who had just come back with some more wood. Haruna looked to her sensei for an instant before her silver eyes were dragged back to the back of her teammate.

"What is wrong with Kenichi sensei?" Haruna asked quietly as she watched his back, she could see even from here that he was tense. Pooling chakra to her eyes she commanded "Byakugan" and she could instantly see his chakra network which was currently in turmoil. "He is really tense and his chakra is boiling very strongly" Haruna said as she stared at the back of his head, the only thing she had seen since their meeting with the Akatsuki. Kakashi looked to his solitary male student up in the tree before his attention rested on the girls again.

"There could be a whole number of things wrong with Kenichi, he has not had an easy life ever since the days of the Shinobi War" Kakashi said as he looked directly into the flames of the fire. Asura and Haruna followed suit as they waited for Kakashi to continue if he would do so.

"I would tell you girls what he has told me but honestly what good would that do any of you? If I was to merely tell you what is important to him it would be a waste of time that could have been better spent with you three bonding, as such if you want to know you will have to wait until he is ready to tell you, it could be tomorrow, it could be next week, or it could be next year, you just have to give him the time to tell you, only them will you have perfect camaraderie" Kakashi finished as he left his team in complete silence, both looked up at the back of their male teammate with sad faces each understanding what their sensei was saying.

* * *

><p>Up in a tree branch a mind was working at an alarmingly quick rate. Kenichi was sitting cross legged as his fingers dug into his knees and thought about the events that could have so easily destroyed him and his whole team. Haruna had been taken out with a rock that was not even meant to have been used offensively. He had acted instinctively when he heard the Uchiha's name but he had looked into the eyes of Sasuke and at that moment and time Kenichi knew instinctively he could not win. Those eyes, they flashed, one second they had been pure black but in a flash they were red with three white overlapping ellipses, then the next second they were black again.<p>

He was not coming back from this mission empty handed, he was going to go back to the village and train to the fullest of his capabilities. There was no way that he would allow a traitor of Konoha to hurt those precious to him, no way in hell! With that his mind was made up his final goal had been set. He was going to kill all who betrayed Konoha, and he was going to kill all three of those Akatsuki, he didn't care what powers they may have, he was going to make sure that no-one precious to him would ever be harmed. He had lost too much in his life already.

Kenichi looked upwards towards the stars that were beginning to form above them as night set in. 'But that Naruto guy said that they were only interested in peace, they liked me because of the way i wanted to protect Haruna and Asura' Kenichi thought to himself as he stared upwards. After a few moments he heard rustling and was eventually accompanied by another in the tree too.

"Yo... i think we need to have another one of those talks again" Kakashi said to Kenichi in his serious manner, Kenichi turned to his sensei with the slightest traces of a smile on his face.

"Again already sensei?" Kenichi asked dryly as kakashi nodded his head causing Kenichi to sigh heavily. this was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p><em>Well here you guys go, I apologise for the short chapter but I believed that to be a suitable place to leave the story off at, I do hope that you all enjoy it and if not then you have my apologies, it is only in the early stages after all. Until next time =] R&amp;R if you please! =] - Varrukh<em>


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